Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to the construction of capacitors, such as structural capacitors, that include one or more layers of cellular materials between the electrodes of the capacitors and methods of manufacturing the same.
Description of Related Art
The concept of structural capacitors was first introduced and conceptually proven in 2001 when a dielectric capacitor to be embedded in the casing of an electronic device was developed. This was done to minimize the volume of the device as capacitors are usually bulky and take up a large amount of space on a circuit board. This capacitor was made with electrodes of continuous carbon fiber and different types of paper as dielectric, all bonded together with an epoxy matrix, with capacitance per unit area having a maximum value of 1.23 μF/m2 measured at 2 MHz, for a capacitor using a 0.04 mm thick writing paper as dielectric. Research efforts have continued since, with researchers reporting further developments on the structural capacitors with different types and numbers of layers of dielectric materials used. These structural capacitors exhibited mass and/or volume savings, but did not perform the individual functions as well as conventional capacitors or composite materials.